Snowmail: Brand, Ross and the Beeb
Updated on 29 October 2008
What's in tonight's programme as news reaches us that Russell Brand has resigned his Radio 2 programme.
Greetings all, Alex T here.
I've been out of the country for a few days. So, it seems, has Mark Thompson, the BBC boss. I mention this only insofar as it is possible that he, like me, might have been struck by the peculiarly British affair: Ross and Brand Gate.
I refer to the likes of Roy Chubby Brown et al who have been ploughing the furrow of extreme comedy quite outside the realms of broadcasting.
All the elements were firmly in place when I finally heard about this late last night (I've been way up in the hills miles from all this) - Mail on Sunday ... BBC like rabbit caught in headlights despite their enormous size ... more tabloid outrage ... rent-a-quote MPs further upping outrage ... and then the prime minister.
And so to the predictable denouement: BBC bosses wake up late and suspend the duo pending further investigations.
The duo meanwhile begin to apologise. The complaints count now approaches 16,000 or more.
So, two of the biggest names in broadcasting are in deep do-do. But Andrew Sachs, in a dignified statement, says he doesn't want to call the police.
Notwithstanding the numbers of people complaining (after the matter was brought to their attention by the tabs) some must just be laughing out loud at this.
I refer to the likes of Roy Chubby Brown et al who have been ploughing the furrow of extreme comedy quite outside the realms of broadcasting.
Like 'em or loath 'em, they are undeniably popular and, for all the noise, a hell of a lot of people will tonight be thinking what on earth are the prime minister, MPs and indeed Channel 4 News doing with this.
Equally - these are big names. The BBC is funded by a peculiar and very public tax so we all have a stake and it has to play by different rules.
Are fiscal rules dead?
There is much else around today. Our very own Faisal Islam is off to see the chancellor today about why the rule book his boss professed to follow when he lived in Number 11, has, it seems, been torn up and pulped.
All this as the markets continue their daily slew - this time it is upwards, substantially when last I looked. We also take a look at how the whole issue of personal financial disasters are about to unfold, we're told, far more painfully than we have yet seen.
Pakistan battle
We're in Talibanistan - the western fringes of what is nominally Pakistan but in fact ruled by a loose alliance of warlords, many of them more or less inclined to the Taliban. The Durand Line - the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, is even more nominal around here than the concept of Pakistan is and we've been out with the Pakistan army as they try to suppress these tribes.
The cost is high; it enrages many Pakistanis and appears to reap little benefit beyond a small amount of credit with Washington. And, Islamabad has serially tried and failed with this kind of thing down the years.
And all this on the day when a serious earthquake has killed at least 150 people in the region.
Congo fighting
Elsewhere we'll have the latest from eastern Congo where, once again, civilians and the Congolese army are now on the run from rebel forces sweeping around the city of Goma.
No aid agencies to speak of in the region now and whilst Goma is well used to mass exodus caused by either wars or volcanoes, the situation is concerning and escalating fast.
Lots more around what with Diego Maradona apparently taking over as manager of Argentina I am hearing, and the snow. Wow! October?
And before we're accused of getting all Home Counties about this - it fell in many places and it falling anywhere below 1,000 feet or so at this time of the year is pretty rare. Not all that common over 1,000 feet in October - come to that.
All that and anything else which moves, do join me at seven on four, Alex T.
